Council April 13

This is it folks – the last Council meeting of the year! (For real this time.) Check out the agenda right here, and tune back in Sunday morning at 10am for all the live action!

10:04: Meeting called to order!

Oral reports of councillors: Ellie has nothing to report. Neither do I, but I suggest that if union members have take home exams they need to work on, they should dedicate one three hour block and get them done in the back room at Trident. I’ve found this strategy very effective.

James and Anika also have nothing to report.

Katie has finished FYP shirts! Awesome! She was able to talk to the equity office at Dal about the posters that had gone up at King’s and apparently it was a mistake. I asked what the objection to the posters was. Katie said the main concern was the location of the posters (taped onto the wall, covering other posters, placement with regard to other posters). Katie says it was not so much the content of the posters but the placement.

Anika says she knows there were issues with the South House not getting their levy increase at Dal, she asks if Katie can give more info. Katie says the Board at Dal will let them have their increase this year, but next year in order to maintain the increase they will have to run a revised referendum question next year during DSU elections.

And white ribbon went well!

Jacob found out that our deadline for putting ads in the handbook is much sooner than we thought it was, so that’s what he’ll work on this coming week. This week the KSU will be giving out free tea, apples, and granola bars in the office!

Emily met with Michal (grad committee treasurer) about the grad week budget. They’re going to meet again soon. She’s also working with Jacob on handbook advertising.

Alex has been working on the tea, granola bars, and apples for stress relief. From 9:30-10:30 am and 3:30-4:30 pm this week they’ll be available. Jacob asks why this stuff won’t be available throughout the day, Alex says because they need to do work during the day. People can grab apples whenever but Alex will be prepared to serve tea at the specified times.

Michaela has been doing a lot of frosh week supervising stuff, and is laying out plans for how the exec will operate over the summer.

Now on to action items! We’re nominating people to the Equity Affairs committee. Alex doesn’t know if the committee has ever sat, it has definitely been a while. The chair of bays and alex hall sit automatically, as well as execs from any society who can petition council to get a seat (so for instance, we haven’t put forward any execs from PRIDE as they could sit anyways

Alex says Rachelle has been working as an equity assistant with Kim Kierans and Dorota Glowacka this year. We’re sending her to the CFS general meeting and she’s done a lot of work with equity pertaining to race and sexual orientation.

Dina is a member of PRIDE and the feminist collective. Katie strongly encourages council to nominate Dina.

Megan was on the KTS exec this year and “kicked butt” (Alex’s words). She’s been working on gender equity stuff this year and would like to do more as she’ll have more free time this coming year.

Bethany has done a huge number of things over her six years at King’s (including a lot of anti oppression work pertaining to trans, queer, gender, and race issues). She’s heavily involved with Divest Dal this year.

Emma Kenny was a president of the feminist collective this year. Alex thinks working with her on this stuff would be great.

Ellie asks why the campus safety officer doesn’t sit on this committee. Jacob says we’re going to look into it. We can’t change it now, we would need a special resolution (which needs to have one week’s notice).

Michaela notes that the college has an equity committee separate from the union’s committee, and the campus safety officer does sit on that one.

I ask if Emma Kenny is planning to continue sitting as president of the feminist collective and if she could get a seat on the committee that way. Katie says yes, she was just re elected.

James asks about the differences between the college and the union committees. The union committee writes union policy, the college committee responds to disciplinary issues.

The names to fill the blanks are Rachelle, Dina, Megan, and Bethany. The motion is adopted!

Report for the campus safety officer search committee: Emma Kenny’s name is being put forward. She has some great ideas. She’s looking to keep ties with various organizations she has worked with over the past year relating to sexual health, gender identity, as well as reaching out to KMHAC (King’s Mental Health Awareness Collective). The motion is adopted, Emma will be hired as campus safety officer this coming year.

Onto sustainability officer search committee: Brianna Aird’s name has been put forward. She was the sustainability officer this past year. Some of her accomplishments include expanding recycling on campus and winter bike storage. She has a great working relationship with facilities and Alex Doyle. We vote to hire her!

New business: I’ve brought up a motion to contribute $750 from the special projects line to the Loretta Saunders Scholarship Fund.

I missed typing out some of this discussion because I was fielding questions, but this fund has been put together by Loretta’s community as a memorial for her and to increase accessibility to post secondary education in Atlantic Canada for aboriginal women. It is being financially administered through the Community Foundation of Nova Scotia and organized by Loretta’s thesis advisor, her sister, a rep from the Nova Scotia Native Women’s Association, as well as 3-5 indigenous community and university reps. Several student groups have already contributed. We have not yet used our special projects line and it would otherwise go unspent.

James asks whether the scholarship would fund someone’s entire tuition and how many scholarships would be given out per year. I said that they are aiming for a $25 000 endowment (to maintain the fund over the years), which would likely not be enough to pay a student’s entire tuition, but the more contributions they get the higher the amount they can put towards each scholarship. I said I thought they were going to start with just one scholarship per year.

Anika says she thinks it’s really important to support this fund and to acknowledge that we should do whatever we can to support indigenous issues.

The motion is adopted.

And council adjourns, marking the end of our final council meeting of the year.